Why, if the old Greeks had had this man, what trilogies of plays - what epics - would have been made out of him! How the rhapsodies would have recited him! How quickly that quaint tall form would have enter'd into the region where men vitalize gods, and gods divinify men! But Lincoln, his times, his death - great as any, any age - belong altogether to our own.Walt Whitman - 1879
With the physical form he presented, the Greeks may have at first chuckled. Lincoln was not known for his gracefulness.
ReplyDeleteA story I read somewhere, that was relayed by Dr. "Bud" Robertson goes as such: A man, seemly disturbed, was quickly walking down the lane toward Lincoln with a revolver in his hand. Lincoln asked what the meaning of this was. The "gentleman" replied that he was going to shoot the first man he came to that was uglier than him.
Linciln studied the man's face for a few moments then said, "Mister, if I am uglier than you-blaze away!"